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This week we finally enjoyed the first really warm day of the year. Smarty had her sailing lesson on that day and did not even mind falling in (yes, again!) - she said that it was refreshing. I am glad that she was able to get back on her horse... er... boat, because she was quite reluctant to go after the last week's experience.

Unfortunately, my husband caught a cold (Smarty had it in a weaker form last week). This might affect our Passover/Easter plans as we were hoping to see friends this weekend.

In English, middle schoolers unanimously rejected Moby Dick, and everyone switched to Pride and Prejudice. Their final writing project for the year will be a "comprehensive essay" on Pride and Prejudice. Smarty does not sweat that type of assignments - she is a pretty good writer and does not have problems putting her thoughts on paper. Also, she already finished the book and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Smarty pushed her animation project in media studies to the last possible moment, but finally she has her characters done and she made some short test animations. Hopefully, she will be able to get her stop motion done just in time for when this project is due. I hope that once it's done over this weekend she will have time for other things, like seeing friends and enjoying good weather.

The best part that happened this week for Smarty was that her science teacher let her do one end-of-the-year science fair project instead of two. We are happy that Smarty did not ask us to speak up for her and approached her teacher twice on her own saying that two projects requiring an extended experiment, a research paper, and a poster board is too much. We are also happy that her teacher (who has her for both science classes) agreed with her, and we expect her to really invest her energies into her high school marine biology project of building a hydroponic garden for her school.

This week, Smarty read Pastwatch by one of her favorite science fiction writers Orson Scott Card. She loved it so much that she immediately launched into a detailed re-read of it after having "gulped it down". She also begged me to read it next. I started it already and see why she liked it so much even though she is not really into history.

I finished reading One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood. The best word I have to describe this story is poignant. It's also interesting how this author could create the story that is based in reality and still sounds magical. Warning: there is an unexpected death of a child in the story, so it might not be appropriate for kids (Smarty did not read it).

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comments:

K read a lot of classics during one summer when I was tutoring a high school student. She enjoyed Pride and Prejudice very much and created a comic based on the story. She prefers classics over young adult books that has too much “romance”. But I guess Pride and Prejudice was different. I think she thought it was comical which was very different than when I read it as a teen.

There's a fun Youtube series that imagines what it would be like if Pride and Prejudice happened in modern times. It's called Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and Smartie might enjoy that as a comparison.I've read some Orson Scott Card, but he has a tendency to start a series, and then not finish it, which can be frustrating as all get out.

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